IPL teams have Rs 134 cr to snap up players in IPL 8 auctions

Kick-starting the Indian Premier League 2015, will be the players auctions to be held on February 16 at Bengaluru. Unlike the auction process in 2014, which spanned over two days, this year’s bidding ceremony will wrap up in one day itself. Manning the gavel this year as well will be professional auctioneer Richard Madley.

It is yet not known how many players will be involved in the auction since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has pushed the deadline for franchises to submit the final list of retained players to February 4.

Teams have a total salary purse of Rs 63 Crores for the 2015 season (5 per cent increase over the 2014 season purse). The salaries of the players retained will be deducted from this amount. As of now, the collective sum available for auction is Rs 134.65 crore (see chart).

So far, a total of 123 cricketers including 79 Indians and 44 overseas players have been retained by the franchises for the 2015 Pepsi Indian Premier season and five Indian cricketers have been traded during the window for player trade this year.

The Delhi Daredevils have released the maximum number of players as of now at 13 (of the total 23), leaving them with the heftiest auction kitty of Rs 40 crore. Released players include seasoned cricketers like Dinesh Karthik and Kevin Pietersen. Both the players were the top two in terms of cost to the team last year. While Kathik was acquired for Rs 12.5 crore (the second highest bid in 2014), Pietersen cost the Daredevils a handsome Rs 9 crore.

Karthik and Pietersen are not the only high costing players to be released this year. Last year’s costliest player – Yuvraj Singh, also failed to make it to the list of players retained by Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. Singh, who fetched a bid of a staggering Rs 14 crore, will find himself among those to be auctioned once again this year. His teammates Albie Morkel, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravi Rampaul, Sachin Rana, Shadab Jakati and Tanmay Mishra in the player auction pool. RCB have Rs 21 crore in this year’s auction.

The Mumbai Indians, who won the IPL in 2013, have also released 10 players and expanded their wallet for this year’s player auction to Rs 10 crore. We will thus see Michael Hussey, Praveen Kumar, Ben Dunk, Pragyan Ojha and Zaheer Khan be up for bidding on February 16.

Chennai Super Kings have retained most of their 20 member squad in 2014, releasing four players. The MS Dhoni led team has the smallest wallet among the eight teams this year with Rs 5 crore. Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders have each released three players, and have at their disposal Rs 13 crore, Rs 11.8 crore and Rs 13 crore respectively for the 2015 player auction.

The final list of players is expected to be out this week as the teams submit their respective lists of retained and released players. The monies available to the teams may change, in case there is a significant change in the list of released or retained players. The auction will begin at 9:30 am on and will be telecast live on the SONY SIX HD and SONY SIX channels. It will also be streamed live on www.iplt20.com.